Improved manufacture from the fibers of epilobsum



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

ltUTGER B. MILLER, OF UTIUA, NEW YORK.

IMPROVED MANUFACTURE FROM THE FIBERS OF EPILOBIUM.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 46,922, dated March 21, 1865.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RUTGER B. MILLER, of Utica, Oneida county, State of New York, have discovered and invented a new com ponent element or material useful for all articles hitherto composed in whole or in part of the cotton fiber, constituting a new fiber for use in the fabrication of'fibrous or textile manufactures, which may not only be mixed with wool, silk, flax, cotton, &c.. but may be used 00 0 for various purposes to which cotton is applied, such as \vicking, adding, batting, twine, cord, paper, stockings, shirts, drawers, cord uroys, cushions, mattresses,fringe, tassels, rope, clothes-line, &c.,thus introducing an entirely-new and useful ingredient or element, the same being the tiber fa plant botanically classified as the Epilobium plant, vulgarly called meadow-pink, deerweedj fireweed, queen ofthe meadow, &c., by means ot'which process or modus 019676672617; light is produced in a new method by the use of a fiber hitherto not utilized for that purpose; and so of other efl'eots resulting from its utilization in the form of wadding, batting, &c., by which a substitute for cotton fiber is obtained and produced and supplied at a cheaper rate and with equal value, resulting in the same effect at less cost.

In regard to the mixture of the wool and cotton with the fiber of the Epilobt'um, it may be done by carding the materials together by hand-cards, or by a carding-machine of fine cotton-wire, (No. 32 or finer,) and properly ground in the usual way. When carded the roll maybe spun either by hand or by machinery. \Vicking may be made from the fiber without carding or spinning by simply separating it from the pod. and twisting it with the fingers, which is all the process necessary for lamps whose burners are of a tubular form.

Your petitioner therefore claims a patent for the dismvery of the utilization of the fiber of the Epilobiu-m plant for the manufacture ot'the articles above enumerated, and for all articles to which it is applicable, as a substitute for the RUTGER B. MILLER.

- cotton fiber.

Witnesses:

ARTHUR M. BEARDSLEY, ALEX. T. GooDWIN. 

